"I'm delighted that Mr. Heston has agreed to come, particularly under the circumstance of his recent announcement," Cornyn said in Monday's editions of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Heston's announcement last month that he'd begun to exhibit symptoms of Alzheimer's disease hasn't stopped him from campaigning for candidates the NRA favors.

Cornyn got the group's endorsement over Democrat Ron Kirk, a former Dallas mayor.

For $75, Cornyn backers can listen to Heston's booming voice over breakfast on Sept. 21 at South Fork Ranch, made popular by the TV show "Dallas," according to an invitation to the event.

Supporters who give $1,000 can have their pictures taken with Heston and Cornyn.

The 78-year-old "Ben-Hur" star will headline a second event at noon that day in the East Texas city of Longview, campaign officials said.

NEW YORK (AP) - Rachel Griffiths says her character on HBO's "Six Feet Under," the promiscuous, pot-smoking Brenda, is a much better person than she seems.

"The thing you just have to know about Brenda is that her good intention is there," Griffiths tells Entertainment Weekly for its Sept. 13 issue.

"She actually has a clear and apparent humanity, you know? She'd jump in and pull out the drowning child, while the nicer people sitting around would go, 'Oh my God, there's a child in the river! Do something!'"

The 33-year-old Australian is nominated for an Emmy for best actress in a drama series for her work. The show, about a family that runs a funeral home, is up for a leading 23 Emmys when the awards are given out Sept. 22.

In January, Griffiths won a supporting-actress Golden Globe for the role.

In 1999, she was nominated for a best-actress Oscar for "Hilary and Jackie."

BOSTON (AP) - When Justice Stephen Breyer took over the "Massachusetts seat" of the U.S. Supreme Court - once held by legendary Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. - he was "quite nervous."

Breyer, speaking at a celebration of Boston's 372nd anniversary at Old North Church, said he felt like he belonged in an old New Yorker cartoon that depicted a dog walking a highwire at a circus.

Recalling the punchline, Breyer said: "All Rover can think about as he steps onto the high wire is that he's an old dog and that this is a very new trick."

The 108th Supreme Court justice, appointed by President Clinton in 1994, gave a history lesson about the eight preceding justices who hailed from Massachusetts, but stayed away from modern issues before the court.

Breyer, 64, one of the court's most liberal justices, said his favorite was Louis Brandeis, the court's first Jew and an ardent supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt's ambitious New Deal programs.

"If I had to pick one personal hero, it would be Brandeis," Breyer said.